Economy

President Moon heads to Russia for regional forum

[THE INVESTOR] South Korean President Moon Jae-in left on Sept. 6 for Vladivostok, Russia, where he will attend a regional forum and hold a series of bilateral summits with other leaders.

Following his arrival in the Russian city, he is set to hold a bilateral summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, according to officials from Cheong Wa Dae.

North Korea and its recent provocations will likely top the agenda at the one-on-one meeting, as it follows the communist state’s testing of its sixth and possibly most powerful nuclear bomb.

In their earlier discussions over the phone held on Sept. 4, Moon floated the idea of stopping oil supplies to the impoverished North, insisting it was now time to discuss the issue at the UN Security Council, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

“It is now time to seriously review cutting off oil supplies to North Korea and ways to fundamentally block the North’s cash cows, such as prohibiting countries from importing North Korean workers, at the UNSC,” the South Korean leader was quoted as telling Putin.

The Moon-Putin meeting will be followed by an expanded summit, involving some 15 other government officials from each side, at which the two countries will also seek ways to expand their economic cooperation, especially in Russia’s Far East.